JACKIE JOHNSON NAMED EMERGING ENTREPRENEUR OF THE YEAR
Corazon President Wins Prestigious Ernst & Young Award

July 21, 2003 - Pittsburgh, PA—Jackie Johnson, President and Founder of Corazon Consulting, was named The Ernst & Young Emerging Entrepreneur of the Year at the “Unmask the Best” event held June 27 at the Westin Convention Center in Pittsburgh. Ernst & Young honors the best in terms of entrepreneurial spirit, vision, innovation, and accomplishment. This year, Johnson’s impressive leadership at Corazon Consulting has done more than inspire her staff—it has earned her recognition as a key leader in Western Pennsylvania ’s thriving business community.

An independent judging panel selected Johnson based on her many contributions to the cardiovascular industry. As an RN with diverse experiences including critical care, diagnostic imaging, and home-based care, Johnson completed her BSN and MBA degrees, and ultimately assumed a senior management role as Executive Director of a Heart Institute at a tertiary teaching hospital in Pittsburgh .

She led the introduction of a packaged cardiovascular product to the Pittsburgh market and soon created Corazon with a unique vision: a firm that would operate at the intersection of business and patient care in order to bring the highest quality consulting services to hospitals and care providers from coast to coast. Corazon Consulting was formed in 2001 as a start-up with just 10 employees working out of Johnson’s home, and now operates as a multi-million dollar business with nearly 30 employees and a national client base of more than 100 hospitals.

Today, Johnson leads her team of Heart Experts in developing and assessing of all types of cardiac and vascular programs, from planning through implementation. The Corazon Approach brings a wealth of clinical, business, operational, and market expertise to each client engagement. This innovative model is detailed in the firm’s new book, Getting to the Heart of It: Proven Strategies to Bypass the Competition in Cardiovascular Services. With Johnson as the lead author, the Corazon team recently completed this first in a series of strategically focused texts designed to address the components of an outstanding cardiovascular program. The release has undergone an extensive peer review by over 70 experts in the field and has received rave reviews from the national marketplace.

The financial growth of Corazon, the risks taken by the company and by Johnson, the story behind the success, and community involvement have won Johnson a position at the National Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year awards ceremony in Palm Springs this fall. There, she will join the ranks of other Entrepreneurs that have gone on to compete at the national level.

Corazon is a recognized leader in strategic cardiovascular program development, assisting clients through the full spectrum of consulting services from feasibility study and business planning through implementation of services. The Corazon team of Heart Experts has assisted healthcare leaders and physicians in tertiary centers and community hospital settings to bring specialized advice and progressive thinking in cardiovascular services to strategic planning, market assessments and financial analyses, clinical operations and new technology, Heart Centers and Heart Hospitals, physician-hospital partnering, best practice benchmarks, and staffing models and staff education for well-developed or newly established cardiovascular programs. Corazon pioneered the application of the Universal Bed in cardiovascular care delivery and brings firsthand experience with service line management as a progressive organizational means for healthcare providers. Corazon is a 2003 Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Company and one of the 2004 “ Pittsburgh 100” Companies.

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